Part 2-WANTED: Phillip Garcia, KSU LT Target

Stacey Dean

09/13/2007

Arguably the most important cog for success in restocking the KSU OL shelf with talent ASAP is potentially inking JC left tackle Phillip Garcia of Cerritos CC in Norwalk (CA). Sporting a 7-foot-2 wingspan, a K-State official offer, along with offers from "Arizona, Arizona State, Kentucky and San Diego State," kid's got the credentials to be big time. Are the Cats a serious contender? Damn Skippy!

Measuring "6-7/6-8" and weighing "320 pounds" at a Scout.com combine this past summer, make no mistake about it Phillip Garcia (who said he typically can clock a "5.4 forty time" on any given day) is a stallion. And Kansas State is certainly no pretender for his services. Quite the contrary. But they do have a little bit of competition however.

"Right now, I have official offers from K-State, Kentucky, San Diego State, Arizona and Arizona State," Garcia told Scout/KStateFans.com. "And it appears likely that I'll have a few more (before it's all said and done)."

Asked who led for his commitment Garcia without a second of hesitation quipped, "K-State."

Looking at his official visit agenda, the Wildcats are the only school already penciled in for an official visit, which bodes well for KSU if in fact Garcia decides he's seen enough after that visit to wind the process down, electing to give K-State his verbal pledge, something he might be tempted to do. He even said as much. But let's take a look at his official visit itinerary below, which goes into a little more depth…

Official Visit Agenda: "I'm going to officially visit K-State October 6, 2007. And then the plan is to go out and see San Diego State, Arizona and Arizona State after that in order to see how they stack up to K-State. But I have yet to set those official visits up."

Well there you have it, Garcia has inked exactly one official visit date and that's to the school showing him the most love, KSU, whom has been all over the Cerritos (CA) Communnity College "true" left tackle prospect.

Notes/Numbers to Conisder…

JC True Frosh Stats Package: "In only nine games I started I had 25 pancake blocks, allowed 4-5 sacks (two of those were BS), 1-2 holding penalties (and I thought those were BS too), and 3-4 false starts."

[Note by Dean: I love the added commentary Garica provided above with respect to the sacks allowed and holding penalty stats. Offensive lineman typically brisk when I request those two stats in particular. Garcia is certainly no exception.]

[Note by Dean: Considering how tall he is and how long his arms and legs are, those are rather impressive weight room numbers. It'll be interesting to see how much gain he continues to make in the strength department. But Garcia said Cerritos CC's strength and weight training program took him from a 285 squat to 405 squat in just one year. Not too shabby. Garcia assured us that he is in fact working hard and will continue making huge strides in his strength numbers."]

Academics: "Needs only 12 hours to graduate in December with his associates degree and on schedule as a result of that to enroll in the spring where he'll count against the 2007 scholarship numbers."

Strengths: "I'd like to consider myself fairly balanced and adept at both run blocking and pass blocking. But if I had to say I might be better at one or the other I'd have to say that I think I'm a little better in pass protection right now. However, improvement can obviously be made in both and I'm working hard to improve my all-around game."

Coaches Comments/Tidbits: "Our coaches at Cerritos are excellent teachers and the strength and conditioning program here rivals the best out there. But my coaches are always stressing knee bend, getting underneath the pads of the defenders, getting lower, and finishing with our hips."

If you missed "Part 1-Wanted: Phillip Garcia, Stud KSU LT Target" then you did not get the full story and missed a ton of information on the coaches recruiting Garcia from Kansas State... Quite revealing, Garcia broke it down for Wildcat Fans in Part 1. And Part One is still available to you below. We provided you a link (just below: See Click Here) for your convenience.